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John J. Christeson
John J. Christeson
John J Christeson
28 November 1930 – 28 July 2025
John Joseph Christeson passed away Monday evening, July 28, 2025, at the Arden Courts Memory Care Community in Austin.
John was born on November 28, 1930, in Barron, Wisconsin, the son of Clifford and Marie (Peterson) Christeson. He grew up on the family farm. After high school he joined the US Army from 1948-1952. John trained as a Switchboard Maintenance Carrier Repeater and was assigned to the Signal Depot in Okinawa, Japan.
After leaving the US Army, John worked in the Barron post office before attending Eau Claire State College where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics. He met his future wife, Janet M. Christeson, at the local bowling alley. They married February 14, 1959, at the Chetek Lutheran Church and resided in Eau Claire until John graduated in 1960. They then moved to Minneapolis, where John began his US Federal career with the Food and Drug Administration. Their two children, Eric and Gail, were born while the family lived in Crystal, Minnesota.
The family followed John on his various moves with the Food and Drug Administration, to their offices in Detroit, Philadelphia and lastly to their headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. One of his significant actions was as part of the team overseeing the FDA response to the Tylenol tampering incident which resulted in the pharmaceutical industry being required to produce tamperproof packaging.
John and Janet moved in 2003 to Sun City, near Georgetown, Texas. John was active in several bowling leagues. His other hobby was cemetery work. He uploaded ~65,000 photos of headstones and family graves from Williamson County on the website Find a Grave.
John is survived by his son Eric, his daughter Gail, his six grandchildren Philipp, Kevin, Sebastian, Florian, Cameron, and Megan, his three great-grandchildren Bennett, Lelan, and William, and his sister Elaine. He is preceded by his wife Janet, who passed away in 2018. John’s cremated remains will be interred at the Central States Veterans Cemetery in Killeen, Texas.